As exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,410, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, it is known to provide a protective garment, which has an outer shell and a thermal liner, with a tab extending from the thermal liner. The tab is attachable detachably to the outer shell, as an indicator that the thermal liner is being worn within the outer shell.
Other protective garments having liner-detecting or liner-indication features are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,806, No. 4,774,725, No. 4,768,233, and No. 4,817,210 (which are discussed in columns 1 and 2 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,410) and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,386,438.
As exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 6,339,843 B1, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, it is known for a protective garment having an outer shell, a liner including a moisture barrier, and a thermal liner to be selectively configured with neither liner attached within the outer shell, with either liner attached within the outer shell, or with both liners attached within the outer shell.
At a firefighting or other emergency incident, it is important for responsible personnel, such as incident commanders and safety officers, quickly to ascertain whether the protective garments worn by personnel responding to the incident are appropriate for the incident.
Commonly, such personnel refer to National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards, which currently include NFPA 1999 (03) for “Protective Clothing for Emergency Medical Operations”, which commonly and hereinafter is abbreviated as NFPA 1999, NFPA 1992 (00) for “Liquid Splash-Protective Clothing for Hazardous Materials Emergencies”, which commonly and hereinafter is abbreviated as NFPA 1992, NFPA 1977 (98) for “Protective Clothing and Equipment for Wildland Fire Fighting”, which commonly and hereinafter is abbreviated as NFPA 1977, NFPA 1971 (00) “Protective Ensemble for Structural Firefighting”, which commonly and hereinafter is abbreviated as NFPA 1971, and NFPA 1951 (01) for “Protective Ensemble for USAR Operations”, which commonly and hereinafter is abbreviated as NFPA 1951. USAR is an acronym for Urban Search and Rescue.
Broadly, for a protective garment to conform to NFPA (1977), the protective garment must have an outer shell but does not have to have a liner providing a moisture barrier or a thermal liner. Broadly, for a protective garment to conform to NFPA 1999, to NFPA 1992, or to NFPA 1951, the protective garment must have a liner providing a moisture barrier, as well as an outer shell, but does not have to have a thermal liner. Broadly, for a protective garment to conform to NFPA 1971, the protective garment must have an outer shell, a liner providing a moisture barrier, and a thermal liner.